


The Stall In The Market (Epilogue)

by SilverHalos88



Series: Time Limited Love [10]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Also need to stop staying up to 5am to write this stuff, Close The Loop, F/F, Finish The Cycle, Gen, I need to get better at tags, I'm not gonna though, Old Friends, Outer Space, Sad and Happy, Secret Identity, Space Market, Space Stations, loose ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29780550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverHalos88/pseuds/SilverHalos88
Summary: “It’s a busy life, being the greatest of all Timelords, especially when people are too ignorant to know it. It had always been a pleasure in the past for Missy, educating the foolish masses of her majesty. Yet right now, the self proclaimed queen of evil finds herself at something of a loss. With no grands plans in motion or schemes on the boil, she finds herself clasping at any potential source of amusement, up to and including a routine trip out for spare parts and supplies. And what better place to get them than from an interstellar bazaar filled with goods from thousands of worlds? Who knows what one might find in the markets of the ancient space station known as Needlepoint Rock…”This is the tenth and final part of my 12th Doctor/Missy story which sees them as an established couple trying to keep their relationship alive in spite of seemingly overwhelming forces trying to stop them. This is kind of like a small bonus part, one that I always planned in order to tie up one final mystery. With this, the original idea for this series finally comes to an end. Feels weird. Ugh I hate endings. Still, I'm going to leave this open though in case I want to come back to it at some point. Hey, you never know... Enjoy!
Series: Time Limited Love [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103555
Kudos: 1





	The Stall In The Market (Epilogue)

There were so many people here, so many wastes of breath and blood and who knows what other biological functions. They were all running about carrying out whatever mundane tasks that filled their lives, living out their delusions of importance. The truth was they were all tiny cogs in a machine they would never be able to understand, their actions working only to serve causes beyond most of their ability to comprehend.  
She could kill anyone of them right now and the chances are it wouldn’t change a thing, Missy thought as she strolled slowly down the sapphire market.  
She walked slowly, almost disconnected from the movement of her feet. There was so much to look at, so much to take in and experience, but all she could think of was ways she could create chaos here. It would only take her a week, two at max depending on what was in the ships coming in, to take control of the place. If she was so minded, that is. It wasn’t a bad place to start an empire, she supposed as she looked at the stream of ships pouring in overhead.  
Needlepoint Rock was an ancient space station that orbited a rogue star system. The system had wondered far from any other galaxy, and as if by fate had found itself in perfect position to act as waystation for hundreds of space lanes. Countless worlds used the station as a trade hub. Fifty gigantic markets were spread out over the asteroids the station was built on, filled with so many treasures that you could own the wealth of a king and still not be its equal. In the space above, countless amounts of ships crowded the sky, shipping goods and people over a huge chunk of the universe. There were so many that they actually dimmed the light from the trio of stars that the station orbited, aiding the almost invisible atmosphere shield that sat above the majority of the markets. It was an incredible place, even she would admit that. That just made it all the more annoying how little those around her really appreciated where they were.  
Maybe she should take it over, Missy considered as she made her way past a number of stalls selling a variety of spices from some collection of sand worlds. It was as good a place as any, if she wanted to go down that route. The truth was though, she didn’t really know what she wanted at the moment. It was as if life itself had conspired to rob her of purpose, or any desire to embark on any of the great endeavours that had marked her previous lives. She actually had her previous regeneration to thank for that, at least in a way. He had gone and gotten himself killed in some mysterious way, and in doing so thrown her completely out of sync. And the worst part was she didn’t even remember it. It was little more than some blurry images and sounds. She was ashamed to admit that she was really upset about that. Her previous regeneration was a thing of beauty, a dancing storm of unrelenting force. In that form she had escaped from the end of time, escaped death itself. She had brought the Timelords to heel and forced them to set her free, albeit with some conditions. There had been nowhere she couldn’t go, nowhere that could stop her. She had been a force of nature.  
And now she was this, an unfocused mess that could barely decide what order she wanted to blow things up in.  
She turned a corner and kept on idly, looking at the stalls as she wondered by. She had come here on a general supply run, looking for random odds and ends to keep her busy while she floated around in her TARDIS. Her ship was one of the newest models, completely obedient and totally under her command. That would have pleased her, but she found its lack of personality… boring. The AI that governed it was totally loyal. It never challenged her, never presented her with anything other than what she wanted. Not like a certain someone’s TARDIS…  
Something shiny to her left made her freeze.  
Missy spun around, not caring who saw her, already reaching for the primitive laser blaster strapped to her hip and hidden by a fold of her dress. Her eyes fixed on the round pendant hanging from a rack on the stall. The circular shapes on its surface were a close match, close enough to fool her peripheral vision, but that was about it. For a moment she had thought it was a Galifreyan artefact, but it was nothing, just a simple coincidence that meant nothing. Yet, just the possibility was enough to make her shiver. As she straightened herself and returned to her visage of calm, her thoughts drifted back to a moment she would rather forget. To Galifrey.  
It had all been part of the agreement she had forced them into making. She was too much of a risk to be let loose without some element of control. Not a risk to the rest of the universe; the current Timelords, the ones recovering from the ravages of the last great time war, were in little shape to care for anyone else but themselves for now. Missy knew how fragile they were, and she knew how to get to their hiding space. Even when she had threated to flatten the capital city, they had only agreed to let her go with a handful of sub-psychic restraints, enough to keep her from doing anything that would harm them in her travels. She hadn’t cared about that at the time. All she had wanted was her freedom. The cost hadn’t meant anything. And besides, it had seemed like a good deal at the time. The psychic restraints would be easy enough to break in time, and they’d had the side effect of finally removing the drumbeat of madness that had plagued her all her life. Or at least, it had seemed like a side effect at first. Part of the restraints compelled her to return to Galifrey every now and then, where the Timelords had continued to try and ‘cure’ her. Their efforts were torturous, with there being almost no line they wouldn’t cross in order to penetrate her mind and change her. What they were trying to change her into, she hadn’t worked out yet, though she could guess. They were trying to turn her into another tool for them to use, another weapon they could wield to ensure their own survival. It had been a long time since she had returned to her home planet, but even now she could still feel that subconscious urging to follow through on the programming they had placed in her mind. It had taken a lot of effort to rid herself of that, but it had taken a terrible toll on her. In their efforts to try and cure and change her, they had succeeded only in breaking her in many creative new ways. One day she had vowed to herself that she would make them pay for that, even if it took all her regenerations. One day she was going to burn that planet to the ground.  
She took a series of deep, steadying breaths as she walked. If her own mysterious regeneration was one side of the coin that had paid for her current situation, then her treatment at the hands of the Timelords was the other side. And there was no amount of people she could kill to get a refund on that particular transaction. She had already tried.  
Huffing in frustration, she headed for the transition tunnel that cut through the asteroid for a few dozen meters before opening up again in a different market. It was like stepping into another world, one filled with a brand-new array of sights, sounds and smells that were just waiting to assault the senses and make a person gag on the mundanity of it all. She wasn’t sure how long she had been walking when she caught wind of an excited voice reaching out through the crowd.  
“…And that’s how you make a bag of aspodium jelly dance like it’s doing a tango. Pretty cool, huh?” The female voice said to the crowd that had gathered around her stall, a crowd that Missy pushed her way through.  
“Do it again!” A small, reptilian child called out excitedly. The stall keeper smiled.  
“Fine, one last time. Don’t blame me if it explodes and get all over your scales.” The keeper said, then she pushed a button on the device in the middle of her table. The device, a small platform with a dish at one end, looked like a strange hot plate, a comparison that was made more apt when the orange lights beneath the central tray shined through the slots. A second later, the greenish gel in the plastic bag begun to wobble. After a few moments it was jumping all over the place as if to some unheard beat. The child’s face lit up with joy.  
“Please father, can we get it?” The child asked as they turned to the adult next to them. The adult nodded and handed over a few coins. The keeper placed the improvised set up into a bag and handed it over. As she did so she winked at the child and slipped the coins she had been given into the bag, all without their parent noticing. By the time the child stepped away with bag in hand, their smile had grown even brighter. Missy remained still as the other onlookers moved away now that the show was over.  
“You’ll never make a living giving away all your profit.” Missy said as she looked over the stall keeper. “It’s not often you see a human all the way out here. Have you gotten lost? Or maybe abandoned? Poor thing. Maybe you need a parent.” Missy mocked as she looked the woman over. Yes, with her shoulder length blonde hair and Earthly looks, she was certainly human Missy decided. A very stupid human, judging by the confused and absent look on her face.  
“Nah not lost, at least not this time. I’m just a fan of travelling. I’ve only been here a week. I’m leaving tomorrow. Just trying to get rid of my old stock. Can’t be asked with the shipping fees. Anything take your fancy?” The keeper said, gesturing at the collection of oddities on her stall. Missy gave it a quick glance but didn’t really take anything in. Her mind thought back to the half dozen unfinished projects she had set up back on her TARDIS, trying to think what she might need to take them to the next step. Nothing came to mind. She wasn’t surprised. She had been hoping she would know what she wanted, what she needed, when she saw it, but so far that hope had been disappointing.  
“Oh I doubt very much you have anything that would interest me, though I am intrigued. It’s quite the collection of junk if nothing else.” Missy said. She wasn’t sure why she was bothering to talk to the stall keeper. Boredom was a funny thing.  
“Hey you never know, I’ve got some rare components here. Well, kinda rare. Sort of, if you think about the how hard shipping can be.” The keeper said, her bubbly attitude grating on Missy slightly, yet she found it weirdly endearing at the same time as well, and was unable to turn away. It was like she was a flower, and Missy couldn’t decide if it would be more entertaining to watch it bathe in the sunlight or to crush it in her hand.  
“I suppose there might be two or three things I could use. Don’t expect top level prices though. Honestly, I’m the one that’s really doing you a favour. You should be paying me.” Missy said, amused at herself. The keeper laughed and nodded.  
“Yeah maybe. Giving away money does seem to be my default position at the moment. Take a look, make an offer, we can haggle. Love a good haggle.” The keeper said happily. She did a dramatic but awkward sweep of her arms across the table. There was a moment of silence. Then the stall keeper spoke again, her voice filled with an element of concern. “Hey, forgive me for saying, but are you ok? You actually look pretty lost yourself.”  
“I…” Missy said, but had to stop herself. There definitely had to be something wrong with her. She had almost opened up to a complete stranger, admitted things she wasn’t even ready to admit to herself. No, nonsense. There was nothing to admit, nothing at all. With her mask of angry indifference firmly in place, she tossed the component she had been looking at aside. “I’m just trying to understand how you ever survived selling garbage like this. Its utter rubbish. You should feel ashamed.” Missy glared at the stall keeper, a look that could melt steel if only her eyes could shoot lasers. The keeper frowned. She was about to walk away when the keeper called out to her.  
“You know, its ok to be lost. Sometimes it’s the only way you can find yourself. It’s scary though, isn’t it? Not really knowing what to do with yourself. I always find a good chat with a close friend helps to get me back on track.” The keeper said as she adjusted the components on her table.  
“I only have one real, close friend…” Missy’s voice trailed off as her eyes went distant for a moment. When her mind returned her attention fixed instantly on an item on the table before her. It had been covered by something else at first, but she recognised it immediately.  
It was a sonic screwdriver.  
“Where did you get this?” Missy asked as she picked up the device. The thing was a wreck, almost a complete right off. Most of the internal components had been burnt out, and those that remained were little more than support systems. She would be able to fix it up, but any data on it would be completely erased. That was good. It meant she would have a clean slate to work from.  
“Oh I’ve had that for a while. It was part of a salvage haul from a wreck on one of Jupiter’s moons. Never did manage to work out what it is.” The keeper explained, shrugging her shoulders. Missy rotated the screwdriver slowly, examining it. There were thousands of civilisations that used sonic technology. It was unlikely that it belonged to him, but just the thought made her… tingle.  
“I’ll take it. You might as well bag up all the rest of this stuff too. I’m feeling generous.” Missy said as she handed back the screwdriver and pulled out a few shiny coins. A few minutes later and the stall was empty, packed away into two big bags.  
“Well, that frees up my day. Might as well see if I can move up my flight out of here.” The keeper said. A lightbulb came on in Missy’s head. She wasn’t sure where the idea had come from, but she acted on it before she could talk herself out of it.  
“I could give you a lift, if you’d like. I have my own ship and trust me, it can go far more places than any of the ones here.” The words felt foreign to her, as if they belonged to someone else. She had said their ilk before. While she didn’t have ‘companions’ like a certain other Timelord, she had travelled with people in the past. They were never her friends, she told herself sternly, it was never anything like that. They were always people she could use in some way, people who were useful. It was never anything more than that. That was what she believed, and that was what her offer was now. Even if she couldn’t figure out exactly how she could use the stall keeper to her advantage yet.  
“Oh, um. I er, no. I’m good thank you, really. I appreciate it though. You have no idea how much I appreciate it.” The keeper said. As she did, a shimmer of something passed over her eyes. It sent a shiver down Missy’s spine, but then she blinked and the moment was lost, and she felt silly for ever humouring the notion that the woman could be anything more than just another average human. Pathetic, really.  
“Eh, your loss.” Missy said harshly with a shrug of her shoulders. “Well, it has been an interesting conversation. And you know what, you may have given me a fun idea after all.” With that Missy gave a curt little nod of her head, more than what the keeper really deserved. Then, with bags in hand, she turned and headed away from the stall, already pushing the stall keeper out of her mind. Within days she would be just another stored memory in the archives of her mind, taking up precious space as it went blurry with time. What wouldn’t fade was the idea Missy had pulled from the conversation. She had been right, Missy thought to herself darkly. Sometimes you did need to catch up with an old friend.  
And until then, well at least with the destroyed screwdriver she had another project she could work on if she got bored.  
Smiling with a dark determination, Missy headed back to her TARDIS, growing more excited with every hurried step she took.

The Doctor watched as Missy left, confident that her disguise had fooled her. Normally two Timelords would be able to sense each other to a certain degree. That ability was even more pronounced with her and the Master, but ever since the Master had gotten close to her in the disguise of a human intelligence operative, she had dedicated herself to learning the same technique. Her efforts had clearly paid off.  
This meeting had been a long time coming. It had been a while since the secret events of the alternate timeline which had resulted in the creation of a paradoxical twelfth Doctor and Missy. She had been in contact with them since that event, even met up too. So far it was going well, and she couldn’t put into words how happy she was for them, for herself. But their relationship was theirs alone, off and away in its own world, almost separate from the rest of the universe. For her, history had continued, and Missy had regenerated into a Master once again, and returned to his old ways. He had gone on to do terrible things, things the Doctor was still struggling to understand, let alone come to terms with. His darkness was a thick, poisonous cloud that had all but choked out any of the light that Missy had shown. It was proving hard to hold on to the hope that somewhere inside him some good still remained, even with the promise she had made to the paradox Missy to never stop searching for it. That was why she was here, to see her friend again even if Missy didn’t know it. Well that, and the screwdriver.  
The cycle was complete now. Eventually Missy would take the broken screwdriver and turn it into a gift for the Doctor’s previous regeneration, and in doing so embed it with a wealth of psychic-emotional energy, enough to be sensed through time. That was how the Doctor had found them, that was how she had been there for the end of an adventure she hadn’t even known she was a part of. Now she had seen the beginning of it to, all in the same life time. Time was complicated like that, especially when you could go flying across it at a whim. Still, she wouldn’t have it any other way. Taking one last look at Missy as she vanished into the crowd, the Doctor smiled. It was time she got back to her own TARDIS too. She turned and left the empty stall. The only thing that remained was the coins Missy had handed her, waiting for some lucky soul to take them.  
The Doctor had already gotten her payment.


End file.
